Ist time at RP- long

[Bchamp]

Ok, second attempt to write this.
First of all, we have only stayed at the Hardrock , never the portifino and not the royal until now. We were going to stay offsite at either Clarion or HJ, or Holiday Inn for roughtly 49. per night but decided to stay here for 132. night. Stayed fri night, sat night and checked out on sunday.
We checked in on friday around 5:30.
Asked for upgrade, NO - girl said the hotel was packed. NOT!!
Filled out preference card for paper and cookies for kids.
Asked for welcome gift for 4 yr old. NO WELCOME GIFT
We got room 1230, seemed like same size as Hard rock, overlooking kids pool area, she did not give us a key to liquour cabinet, no problem but just seemed strange.
Went to eat dinner at citwalk, Pat O'Briens, food ok, got back to room around 9 pm - NO COOKIES, kids are looking for dessert.
I called down to star services and they say they will send them right up. 9:30 no cookies, 10 pm no cookies, I call down again and am told that they werealready delivered. OK, now I am giving up. 10:45, knock on door, cookies are here but kids are asleep.

Saturday morn - NO PAPER, go to parks for day and come back at 4:30- NO ROOM SERVICE, hubby takes kids to game room and I go to desk to look for help. Baskets in room are full, I ran into two guys with name tags, possibly management, tell them we would like our room cleaned or to give me some garbage bags. They ask for room number ( but not name) and then I went to game room.
We got back to room at about 6 and someone had cleaned up.
We went to citywalk again for dinner, NBA City, excellent , and then back to the hotel and just wandered around for awhile.
Very cool outside.
Sunday morning, NO PAPER AGAIN, my hubby reads the paper everymorning and was now a little annoyed.
We planned on checking out early and then spending the day at the parks.
Compared to Hardrock --- from the moment we stepped into Hardrocks lobby, we felt good and in a vacation mood. Not so with the royal pacific, we walked in the lobby and it was very quiet.
NO UPGRADE, NO PAPER, NO KIDS GIFT, NO LOEW WELCOME GIFT until 3rd call, NO ROOM SERVICE,
I don't know about you guys, but when we pay over $100. a night for a room with 2 beds, and thats about it, its nice to get what they advertise. If they don't want to give us gifts, then don't tell us and write it in our books. We at the very least, expect our room to be cleaned and restocked in a mannerly fashion. We tipped the first doorman $5. for taking our bags to the lobby. We tipped the second bellman $10. for taking our bags to the room and giving us info. We are not the cheapo types but we have both worked in the service industry before and we know how to give good service and we know when we get bad service. Universal park did not warrant front of the line. IOA probably did but would not have been that bad to wait in line, it was nowhere as busy as the last time we were there.
We could have saved some money staying offsite.
Next time, it is back to the HARD ROCK!!

 

[h20jag]

Certainly felt the way ya'll do for the longest time!
It took awhile before I'd try 'em again, but it did improve each time a little.
I think a lot of it has to do with timing (and it shouldn't!), but give it some time before trying them again.
And in the meantime, write Loews and tell them of the hotels' shortcomings!!
Good luck on next trip, can't go wrong with HRH!
Jim

 

[webray]

We must have been there at the same time.

Hubby and I checked in around 3pm...no line to check in...went straight to the Loews Express check in counter, while hubby took care of the luggage and valet parking. The resort is beautiful. We got nothing but first class service all the way. The guy at check in..took just minutes to check me in...I was done before hubby was finished outside. Hubby walked up, front desk guy called the bellman to get our luggage, bellman came over...looked at our info...said one minute, I will grab the luggage and meet you right back here.

We were in Tower 3, right off the lobby. Bellman took us to our room, giving us a small tour and info along the way. Bellman unloaded everything, and we called to have the car brought back around so that we could go to MVMCP at disney. We were only there a short time, then came back to the resort. Our wine had already been delivered and was beautifully displayed with glasses etc. We ordered room service for dinner, so we could wind down from the drive and a long week.

When you return back, the employees outside welcome you back home. It is very nice.

We were told room service was running 45 minutes or less. It was to us in 30, the food was very good and still hot. Most impressive.

Paper was there in the morining, and again on Saturday. We have found when we are missing a paper, it is not that it hasn't been delivered, but it is other guests stealing it from the front of your door. This has happened many times to us at the portofino.

We tried Islands restaurant for breakfast. You can have buffet or order from the menu. Buffet has almost everything the menu has, so we opted for the buffet. it was very good, and reasonably priced. Khalib was our waiter, and he was excellent. Very funny.

We headed over to IOA for Grinchmas....we went sledding, had our pictures with Shrek, the grinch, the people from the Wild Thorneberrys, and many others. Then we headed over to Universal for the Macy's parade. All in all and excellent day.

After the parade we headed back to RPR for dinner, at Islands, it was Bali buffet night. It was pretty good, I think I would prefer to order from the menu, rather than have the buffet. After that we went into Jakes American Bar and grill for a couple drinks.

We checked out on Sunday and headed home.

All in all, for $132 a night, including taxes, this resort is a great value. Outstanding service, all the way around. We had a wonderful weekend, and wouldn't hesitate to book there again.

 

[damo]

DS and I were at the RPH from Dec 10-14. We had absolutely no problems, although I don't like cleaning people in my room. I prefer to make my own beds and I ask for towels and supplies if I need them. I always find them to be more of a nuisance than a convenience. We ate at Jakes and the Islands and had excellent food. There was always something going on in the lobby (hoola dancers, singers, etc). Walk to the parks wasn't bad at all. It is especially nice at night.

My only complaint was the dogs. There must have been six on our floor. They were quiet at night though, so it wasn't too bad.

I still prefer HRH for atmosphere and room size although we certainly can't complain about the RPH.

The hotel certainly grew on us and we would have loved to have stayed a few more days.

 

[SnowWitch]

Bchamp I understand completely. We stayed there this past August on club level. Never again!!! We love the HRH and PBH but the RPR was awful. We had trouble getting our room cleaned also, encounterd very rude housekeeping staff, and the fire alarms going off for hours during the middle of the night. I wouldn't stay there again for $50 per night. It's back to the PBH for this family!

 

[lookingforward]

I'm a little nervous about staying at the RP because of the comments we have been reading but the HRH is sold out valentine weekend. I would appreciate any hints and comments about staying at the RP. Has anyone tried for a Loews upgrade? Do all the rooms have sofas? Any hints wo uld be appreciated.

 

[SnowWitch]

Lookingforward plenty of other guests have had positive experiences at the RPR. You may not encounter the problems myself and others have experienced on our trips. We stayed on club level so we didn't ask for an upgrade. There was no sofa in our room. Hope you enjoy your trip!

 

[YenSid1222]

....about the fire alarm situation.

I was there during that truly horrible few days. Basically what happened was that one night a few youths went on a little joy running around and thought it would be fun to pull fire alarm signals. Well, after they did the first one...while they were running around...they pulled anything they could find.

Well, this caused at first some craziness....the system was getting fire alarm readings all around, but no one could find any fire. So, once the youths were apprehended, they went to reset the system, and evidently they managed to screw with the system so much that no one could exactly figure out what the h$#l had happened. The manufacturer was called in, the installers, you name it. Everytime they thought they had it solved, another alarm would go off. They had to check every single alarm in the hotel almost each time. They finally figured out the problem and got it all fixed.

THEN...as luck would have it...one night, just a few days later...some people were in the game room and got so frustrated, or something, with a game that they decided to tilt it toward them (I am still trying to figure that one out). Well, they way the ceiling is, it happens that the machine will hit the sprinklers if it were tilted the way they did....which busted the sprinkler head...and started a flood of water...which causes the change in water pressure...which generates a....you got it....fire alarm. But this time a flood came with it....plus some ruined games, but I digress.

Anyway, this is not an excuse, but just a story of what went on during that crazy few days that you were at the Resort. Things have smoothed out quite a bit since then. Maybe you can give it another shot sometime in the future.

 

[Debbie7452]

My family and I loved RP and would love to go back. I'm not discounting anyone elses feelings but wanted to cheer up those who are going soon. We went last summer right after they had opened. We were prepared for little glitches but found none. We did get a fabulous upgrade to Club level while paying $99 rate, so of course this greatly colors our view of they hotel. I requested the free upgrade (politely) by writing a letter to the Concierge about a week before our arrival. Don't know if this would work again...but it has been effective for me at other properties since then. I always feel that it can't hurt to try, but I know I am not entitled to anything.

 

[lookingforward]

We just got back from the RP and I thought I would update. Overall we liked the hotel! We arrived at 4:30 p.m. on a Saturday and requested an upgrade. They upgraded us from a standard room to a king suite. Very NICE! I will agree that their maid service is slow. I think they try to get all the vacant rooms cleaned up first and at 4:40 the next day our room was still not cleaned. A q uick call took care of it. I posted a trip report with some more details. But we would stay there again. HRH is still our favorite, though.